​On Wednesday 26th August twenty turned up at the Brook Weald Cricket Club for an evening of Petanque. We had ten male and ten female attendees and they were split into ten mixed pairs for the competition. Many expletives could be heard from the pitches, with a mix of Nooo's!, and Yeees's!, together with fist pumping and head thumping as the route to victory became more intense. Reputations were ruined and new heroes came to the fore. Regretfully new member Adeyemo Kehinde was stuck in traffic and was unable to make it, so local Petanque club member Jean substituted for her. Needless to say it was Jean partnered with Stefan Tkaczyk who having won all their five matches strode to victory (Unsurprising really!!). However, well done to them, and the picture shows them with President Tony Clark having received their alcoholic prizes.
Thanks must go to all the staff of the Petanque club for their help in making the evening very successful. A superb array of sandwiches etc were supplied and copious drinks were consumed from the bar. Graham and Jean in particular are to be thanked for helping with the Petanque itself  by doing the scoring, measuring and offering general advice and training!
The evening was organised by Geoff Morgan who did a great job in getting so many people to attend and donating the prizes, so a special thank you to him as well.

On Tuesday 18th August a number of members and their partners visited the SNAP headquarters in Warley to present them with the proceeds from the Rotary Quiz Night which was held back in March. The net profit from that event was £3730.33 which was a tremendous achievement.
Pictured above (from left to right) are Brian Hughes with Nancy, Stefan Tkaczyk, Charity Committee Chairman Geoff Morgan,, SNAP CEO Karen Boath, President Tony Clark, SNAP Fund Raiser Lauren Stebbing, Neville & Margaret Brown and Joyce Clark
Next  year's quiz night will be on Saturday 6th March and will be at Brentwood School.

On June 29th President Keith Hawkes handed over the chain of office to Tony Clark. This is the third time Tony has been President, having served in 2001-2002 and 2023-2024. In the absence of a Vice President, it was decided that Tony and Jean McGinley would do six months each to guide the club through the 2026-2027 Rotary year. The club at present is quite buoyant in so much as two new members will hopefully be inducted in August and two new Corporate Members have been welcomed - Matchroom Sport and Nuclear Races. The new Administration Committee who will technically be running the social activities of the club have already come up with with some interesting ideas, and the club as a whole look forward to a very rewarding year. Speakers are in place for the first six months, and the schedule can be viewed on the Rotary Planner.

On Wednesday 20th May we had a club visit to the Sculpture Studios whose factory is in Basildon. The main sculptor is Aden Hynes, who with his three sons runs a very successful business producing both small, large and immense sculptures for TV, movie sets and award ceremonies.
Following our visit there, we retired to the Dukes Head Pub for lunch - well, it would be rude not to!!

Once again, we organised a very successful half marathon on Sunday 22nd March, sponsored for the first time by Barry Hearn OBE from Matchroom Sport. His involvement has taken the event to a whole new level, meaning we sold out (2800 runners) with a month to spare, and we raised over £200,000 to add to the £4 million we have raised over the 44 years that the event has been staged. The weather was perfect, and the men's event was won by last year's winner, who broke the record once again - 1 hour, 4 minutes, 59 seconds. Ironically, the female race was also won again by last year's winner. 

The whole Hearn family turned up on the day, and stayed for the duration of the event. Barry was there, together with his son Eddie and daughter Katie. Also in attendance was Alex Burghart, the Member of Parliament for Brentwood, the Governor of Rotary's District 1240 with his wife, the Mayor of Brentwood and his wife, and various representatives of our sponsors. Most important of course was Steve Baker of Baker Labels who in the company of Eddie and Alex presented some of the awards, but Brian Hughes from Rainer Hughes, Jack Jaques from  Blueprint Properties and Nikki Scudder from Hilbery Chaplin were all present on the day

The event could not have been staged without the help of three other organisations who form the consortium. They are of course the Brentwood Running Club, the Brentwood Theatre and Saint Francis Hospice. Our grateful thanks go to all involved, including outside assistance from Emergency Doctors Medical Service, the Warley and Brentwood Army Cadet Force, Sophie Vowden from SV Sports Therapy who provides all the masseurs and the many volunteers who run with the flags to guide the runners to attain their expected time.
Believe it or not - the entries open for the 2027 event on 1st June and the date to remember is March 21st 2027

On Monday 23rd February, we held our annual Charter Night at the Bentley Golf Club, where over 80 members and guests enjoyed a wonderful three-course meal. We were royally looked after by the golf club staff once again, and the evening was made special by our guest speaker Barry Hearn from Matchroom Sport, who is the new headline sponsor of the Brentwood Half Marathon. He gave us all an insight into his life from a modest background in Dagenham to where he is today. Matchroom has become one of the leading sports promoters, with snooker, darts, pool and boxing within its stable. Other important guests included Steve Baker and Kirsty Dailly from Baker Labels, who are additional sponsors of the event.